Five for Friday, written by a variety of MoMA staff members, is our attempt to spotlight some of the compelling, charming, and downright curious works in the Museum’s rich collection.

MoMA was the first art museum to collect and exhibit automobiles as examples of functional design. The Cisitalia “202” GT (1946) was the first vehicle to enter the collection, in 1972, and MoMA has organized nine automotive exhibitions, beginning with the landmark presentation Eight Automobiles in 1951. (Download the original press release in PDF format.) More recently, in 2002, the Museum presented AUTObodies: speed, sport, transport, which featured all the cars in MoMA’s collection.

As an auto worker who worked at Ford’s, Chryslers and General Motors growing up the Detroit area I expected at least one muscle car from 1965-1969! The Chryler Hemi plant was a mile from my house and the Ford Mustang plant was 5 miles away. I even worked in the steel mills that produced the metal for the cars. And come on curators what about the Duesenberg. Now that’s a duesey!

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